I was in “grade 6” at Indian Creek Road Public School in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. It was late May and I was a participant in the annual “track&field day.” I was a pretty superior child athlete (I peaked way to early), but wasn’t much of a runner. However on that beautiful May day, things were different. I found myself in the finals of the 100 meter dash, and you better believe I ran as hard as I could and as fast as I could and I…finished 5th. That was both the beginning and the end of my Sprinting career…until now.

In the New Testament, Paul describes the Christian life as a race, and I often hear from Christian Leaders that this race is a Marathon; go at a slow and steady pace so you don’t burn out (a la the Tortoise and the Hare). In that classic story, the turtle wins but it wasn’t because the Rabbit was burnt out…it was because the Rabbit took his eyes off the prize, he got cocky, and fell victim to distraction.

I am learning to lean into the Hare’s style of running minus his lack of focus and pride problems. I actually think this Christian life is more like a series of sprints with some time to rest in between. At Northway, we are in a season of Sprinting. From Easter, to multi-site stuff, adding services, restructuring and so on, there is no time to run slow. There is a new sense of urgency that is so compelling and convicting that if I were to go slow I’m afraid I would miss IT. There is too much at stake to run slow.

Paul goes on to say that we should run in a way that will allow us to WIN…you have got to know your rythmns…there are times we need to REST…but when you are in a season of Running…Run Hard…Sprint.

I am running as fast and as hard as I can after God’s calling on my life, and next week, I will rest as hard as I can on the beautiful beaches of SoCal that he created for me to rest on…so that I can get filled back up to start Sprinting again…and this time I plan on doing better then a fifth place finish.

Do you align yourself with the Tortoise or the Hare way of thinking? Why?

I stopped blogging for a while…perhaps you noticed…perhaps you didn’t. It has been a good time of refocusing for me. I have never had more opportunities than I have had over the past several months, however I am learning in very tangible ways that with great “gifts” comes great responsibility…and great time requirements.

This week I will blogging and twittering from the midst of the craziness, culture shaping, and creativity that is the Creative Church Conference. From the plane ride from NY to TX to main session takeaways from some of the most Innovative and thought provoking leaders in the Church today…if you can’t make it to C3, I got ya covered!

If you just can’t get enough of the conference you can also check out these blogs:

I know it’s been a weeks since the Steelers won the Super Bowl but this blog has taken a back seat to real life…However I would be remissed if I didn’t say “I told you so” to a bunch of you haters out there🙂

All I kept hearing about from my church peeps was that the Cardinals were going to win because of Kurt Warner and his faith…first off games aren’t won because a team has a Christian on it but if they were…my boy Troy had the Steelers covered. Check it out